A report documenting the incredibly difficult journey of sending a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda, highlighting why sending things is so challenging.
Rex Tumbouro, a software developer living in Australia, has shared his experience of sending a laptop to a friend living in a refugee camp in Uganda on his blog. Tumbouro thought it would arrive within a few weeks from his local post office, but in reality, it required several more complicated procedures than he had anticipated.
Shipping a Laptop to a Refugee Camp in Uganda - NotesByLex.com
While working, Tumbouro was pursuing a bachelor's degree through a program at the University of London, and he interacted with other people from overseas who were also studying for their degrees outside of work hours. One of them, Django, a refugee from Congo living in a refugee camp in western Uganda, accidentally damaged the motherboard of his laptop just weeks before the next semester was about to begin. So Tumbouro decided to send Django an old MacBook that he wasn't using anymore.
First, Mr. Tumbouro cleaned the MacBook before sending it to Mr. Django, including cleaning the dust off the MacBook, erasing the hard drive, and reinstalling macOS. He then asked ChatGPT how to send the laptop, and was told that 'it is possible to send a laptop via Australia's national postal service as long as the lithium battery is installed in the device.' So he went to the post office and went through the shipping process with the help of an employee. The delivery fee was 111.60 Australian dollars (approximately 12,700 yen).
On April 1, 2026, Mr. Tumboulo gave Mr. Django the tracking number for his package, and on April 7, Mr. Django thanked him, saying that 'according to the tracking number, it should arrive soon.' However, on the same day, the package could not be processed at the distribution center and was sent back to Mr. Tumboulo's house. The reason, as ChatGPT initially mentioned, was the lithium battery, and it was discovered that devices containing lithium batteries cannot be shipped by international airmail.
So, he searched again for ways to send his laptop overseas and found a company called 'Pack & Send' with an office a few kilometers from his home. He requested a quote through their website and was given a quote of 213 Australian dollars (approximately 24,200 yen). He walked 45 minutes to the office with his MacBook and was told that they would properly package and ship it for him.
However, Pack & Send warned that 'due to the disruption to global cargo routes caused by the restrictions on navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, delays are possible.' They also pointed out that a contingency fund of $50 to $100 (approximately 8,000 to 16,000 yen) would be needed for customs duties and taxes. Since Django was in a difficult financial situation, Tumboulo reportedly sent money to help cover the contingency fund.
Over the next few days, the MacBook sent by Tumboulo traveled from Australia through nine countries to the Netherlands. Then, on April 15, 2026, Django received an email with instructions on how to receive the package. According to the email, he could receive the package by paying a fee of 95,000
Django tried to apply online following the electronic procedure for obtaining a TIN on the Uganda Revenue Authority's website, but the online procedure was not open to refugees or non-citizens. He could only start part of the application online, and after that he had to go to the office in person. Django said that even just starting the application process was difficult, as the online application form was an old Excel macro format that didn't work on smartphones, and when he asked a refugee support organization to help him fill out and submit the application, they demanded several thousand yen and said it would take two weeks.
Ultimately, Django decided to handle the process himself and traveled three hours to Mbende, the town where the Uganda Revenue Authority is located. At the office, he was told that 'to process the application, you need to return to the refugee camp and obtain a permit from the camp leader.' When he explained that it would be difficult to make another round trip, he was offered the suggestion that 'it can be resolved more easily if you hand over 'something'.' Despite these troubles, he agreed that another staff member would look at his documents. However, after opening the documents, he was told that 'the network is down, so please come back in a few days.' Nevertheless, Django had seen other people receiving service without any problems, so after waiting several hours, he asked again, and the same staff member opened the files and completed all the procedures in just a few minutes.
Having obtained the TIN, Django completed the portal registration and assessment. The total taxes amounted to approximately 48 Australian dollars (approximately 5,400 yen), and at this point, the cumulative amount including shipping was approximately 407 Australian dollars (approximately 46,000 yen), which was approaching the point where it would be cheaper to send the purchase price rather than send the MacBook.
Finally, on May 6, 2026, the package arrived in Uganda. However, Uganda has a regulation that states 'used laptops cannot be imported unless accompanied by the original receipt with the exact purchase price,' and the customs declaration form that Mr. Tumboulo had enclosed, which stated that the item was used and listed an estimated price, was insufficient. As a result, the package was seized by customs, and an additional payment of approximately 18.50 Australian dollars (approximately 2100 yen) was required for the correction application. Mr. Django made the payment on May 8, and the following day, Mr. Tumboulo finally received notification that the package was ready for delivery.
However, it took several more days for the package to reach Django, and the tracking information recorded it as 'delivery failed.' So Django traced back the phone number that had called him about the package and tried to find the delivery person through word of mouth. He learned that instead of a legitimate delivery company delivering it directly, the procedure was to 'give the package and transportation fee to a motorcycle taxi driver to deliver it,' which Django found unreliable, so he asked again where the package was being temporarily stored, and he found the cardboard box containing the MacBook not in a distribution center, but in a small hardware store. When Django asked the store owner, the owner said he had no idea what was inside the box and that 'a friend had just asked me to hold onto it temporarily until someone came to pick it up.'
Thus, Django successfully received his MacBook. Below is a photo that Django sent to Tumboulo with his thanks. Incidentally, even after Django personally went to pick up the MacBook, the electronic tracking system never updated to show that the delivery had been completed.
Tumboulo's blog post went viral on the social news site Hacker News, with a Ugandan user who has shipped electronic devices and laptops many times for work agreeing, saying, 'Indeed, Uganda's delivery system is riddled with flaws and won't improve because many unscrupulous individuals profit from this chaos.' He added, 'If Tumboulo had asked Django, who is on the ground, for the best method from the start, he could have saved a lot of time and money. Their first mistake was Googling how to send a laptop overseas.' Another user living in France with a Ugandan partner commented , 'When sending packages to African countries, don't use regular postal services or expensive courier companies. Use gray market freight forwarders run by locals. They are familiar with the complex rules and customs, which rules apply and which don't, and who to pay how much. It works better to go with the flow in Africa rather than trying to impose European methods.'
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in Note, Posted by log1e_dh